Frankfurt Airport - In a Word - Nein!
Written: Feb 17 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: not one
Cons: just about everything
The Bottom Line: I'm sure the city of Frankfurt is nice. Their airport is a nightmare.
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| naphtalia's Full Review: Frankfurt am Main |
A friend of mine who flies extensively on business says that "Frankfurt is the place everybody travels through but nobody stops in." Well, I just travelled through Frankfurt Airport a couple of times, and I'd like to tell you about the experience.
Flying from anyplace in Eastern Europe to anyplace in Western Europe or the other way around, you are probably going to have to change planes. Chances are pretty good that the place you will be meeting your connecting flight is Frankfurt Airport. As big as some towns I've visited in Poland, the airport is quite impressive. It is impressive in another way, too. This place is incredibly unfriendly for the tourist traveler.
Allow plenty of time to meet connections when you are in Frankfurt. I had an hour scheduled between flights and arrived on time. By the time I deplaned and raced from terminal to terminal (passing through passport control in route because I'd be leaving the EU) I barely made it. I can't imagine doing this if I was traveling with children or if I had mobility issues.
I've passed through Frankfurt twice recently - once on my way to Spain and once on my way back. In no situation did we depart or arrive to the gate. Instead, we rode a bus to/from the plane for boarding and then walked up the steps to the planes. This may not be a problem in good weather, but can be rather treacherous feeling in the evening or in the rain. The stairway leading up to the plane feels quite steep. It's hard to hold on when dealing with carry on luggage. There did not appear to be any preboarding as families with children got on and off with the rest of us. On returning to the gate from the plane, we drove around for seven minutes til we got to our gate. That should give you a feel for how big this place is.
When we were dropped at the gate, the door would not open to admit us. Finally a technician used a key to let us in. Up the stairs (with carry-on luggage and parents with children.) There was an elevator. I saw the lady at the front of the line push the button when I was still outside the door. By the time I was half way up the stairs and had lost site of her, the elevator still had not arrived.
No where when we entered the main part of the airport was there a customer service desk or any airport/airline personnel to help us find our connecting flights. I found a luggage cart that someone had left and dumped my things on board. A way down the hall I saw a bank of monitors with flights listed by time of departure and found out that I had to get to the other terminal. Nowhere was there a map to indicate 1) how to get where I was going, 2) how far one thing was from another, 3) where I could find a cash machine, a bathroom or anything else. The Frankfurt Airport's web site says that one can ask at an information desk about where to go for connecting flights. This is a terrific theory. In my trips through the airport, however, I never once saw an information desk that was actually manned by anyone within the terminals. Perhaps these information desks are near the check-in.
The site also says there is a "Skyline Terminal" to take passengers between terminals. None of the passengers seemed to know anything about it. There were no airport personnel to direct us to any such services. I have since found the information at the Frankfurt web page. The web page states "The Sky Line trains offer a constant service backwards and forwards between the two terminals. The Sky Line station is situated in Terminal 1 above the Departure Hall B, above the Sky Line shopping arcade. Elevators and escalators can be used to take you the platform. At the other end of the track, in Terminal 2, the Sky Line station is on level 4. Elevators and escalators connect you to the counter hall." Now that I have those instructions, I still am not sure where I would go, but at least I stand a chance of finding my way.
The signage at the airport did not direct me to the Sky Line (or if it did, I didn't know what that was.) It did direct me between terminals on foot and that path was clearly marked. However, the time it took to get between terminals is astounding. As a healthy, middle aged woman traveling alone and with a bit of carry-on luggage (back-pack and laptop computer) I barely made it to my connecting gate before they finished boarding. I had made no stops to buy anything, to use the lavatory or to use a cash machine or to do anything else. One of my other problems here arose when I finally got to within site of my gate, I hit passport control. I know I need to go through this, but there was no one here to check tickets and say "Gosh, your plane is already boarding. Let me get you to the front of the line." On my day, the line was not overly long - about 20 people being served by two officers. On other days, however, I could foresee this being a bigger problem.
Another issue for me is that smoking is allowed all over this airport. I don't have problems with smoking areas, but everywhere I went, there were poorly ventilated smoking areas. I felt like I was being gassed. I came into the airport wearing clean smelling clothes. Before I left, I smelled like an ashtray.
Although planes do not seem to come up to the gate to meet passengers, no one could tell me ahead of my arrival what gate I was to go to in Frankfurt. On my first trip through Frankfurt when I had more time, the gate was not put up on a monitor until an hour before my flight left. I got lucky and was in the right terminal. Since Lufthansa flies out of both the A and B terminals, however, that was a 50-50 guess on my part. The Frankfurt web page reccomends checking to see which terminal you are leaving from before you arrive. No one could tell me this ahead of time. Even one hour before flight time the information wasn't posted. How was I supposed to find this out a week ahead?
One of my final problems at Frankfurt was the lack of money exchanges or ATM/cash points within the terminals. They advertise that they have over 184 shops. However, if you don't happen to have Euro yet, there is no where within the terminal to conduct that transaction. All money exchanges and bank machines are by the exits. If you have time between flights and want to get your money changed, however, you can't.
I have traveled extensively over the years. I was making cross country air flights with my parents since the age of four and have flown to five different continents over the years. Of all the airports I have ever been in, this one is far and away the most unfriendly. I felt like things were incredibly disorganized and that airport staff was improvising as they went. I might have expected these kinds of problems in some locations in South America or Asia. I did not expect them in a country whose people are reknowned for efficiency.
If you are going to be traveling from or through Frankfurt Airport in the future, I would recommend a quick swing by their web site. You may or may not find it helpful, but at least you'll know what the staff thinks is going on (even if they're wrong) before you get there. There web site is: http://www.frankfurt-airport.de/
Recommended:
No
Best Suited For: Singles
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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naphtalia
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Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the_circus has left town.
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